How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County’s bid to seek alternative power options is in limbo after more than six months of talks, with Clearlake rejecting the offer from Sonoma Clean Power, the Board of Supervisors choosing not to cast a formal vote and Lakeport left without an offer on the table.
It is less disputed that Lake County needs additional electricity options than which path to take.
Still, joining Sonoma Clean Power, or SCP, to implement a community-based electricity procurement program called community choice aggregation, has remained the only option local jurisdictions have seriously explored so far this year.
Yet after months of discussion from April through October, the three local governments have ended up collectively, de facto, saying no to signing the agreement at this moment.
Supporters of the deal emphasize the urgent need for alternative options to address soaring utility rates and limited choice in Lake County, while opponents — including most supervisors and some councilmembers — raise concerns about local authority and future decision-making under SCP’s governing structure.
On Oct. 2, the Clearlake City Council voted 3-2 against joining SCP, two days after a joint workshop where the 15 elected officials of all three jurisdictions met together on the matter for the first time. Mayor Ross Creamer and Vice Mayor Dirk Slooten voted in favor, with councilmembers Tara Downey, Jessica Hooten and Mary Wilson opposed.
On Oct. 21, the Board of Supervisors did not take a formal vote on the matter, but there was an apparent lack of majority support to move forward. Supervisors Brad Rasmussen and Jessica Pyska expressed support, while Bruno Sabatier, Helen Owen and Eddie Crandell raised doubts.
The board discussion concluded with direction to staff to explore other service providers. It was brought up during the meeting that statewide there are 26 service providers of community choice aggregation, or CCA.
“Exploration of further CCA options and development of an energy policy were among the next steps favored by individual supervisors,” County Administrative Analyst Trevor Mockel, who handles media inquiries, said in an email response to Lake County News on Oct 24. “Admin’s next step will be facilitating consideration of options; we anticipate general board discussion will occur before the end of the year in open session.”
However, Mockel did not address Lake County News’ questions about if the county reached out to other service providers when they contacted SCP — and why there wasn’t a request for proposals issued at the beginning of the process.
“I will say that that was my mistake throughout this whole process — I should have asked that to happen when we agreed to reach out to Sonoma Clean Power,” Supervisor Bruno Sabatier told Lake County News during a phone interview on Oct. 27, when asked about reaching to other CCAs at an earlier time. “So I don't think that I was perfect in my process.”
Because SCP’s offer was intended for all three jurisdictions, and two chose not to advance it, by the evening of Oct. 21 when Lakeport was set to vote on the item, the offer no longer existed. Action by the Lakeport City Council to join, therefore, would have been moot, Lakeport City Manager Kevin Ingram told Lake County News in an email.
Although no formal vote was taken, the majority of Lakeport City Council members expressed frustration at the Oct. 21 council meeting.
“I wish we were a larger city where we could just go at it ourselves and not need the county support and the city of Clearlake support,” said Lakeport Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Disney.
This round of negotiation with SCP spanning more than half a year reached a formal pause following Lakeport Mayor Kim Costa calling the process “embarrassing” at the end of the council discussion.
“It would be safe to summarize that the Lakeport City Council was disappointed in the outcome and feel that not joining SCP at this time represents a missed opportunity,” said Ingram in an email, adding that he had been instructed to continue talks with SCP and the county in exploring other CCA options.
Supervisors have split views
SCP’s offer to Lake County includes lower utility costs, voluntary participation from residents, mandatory participation in their geothermal zone efforts that seek to develop geothermal projects in the future, and two seats for Lake County — one for the county and one for the city — on its governing board.
While the SCP feasibility study suggests potential bill savings to be 4.2% to 12.9%, Supervisor Sabatier told Lake County News that his calculation shows the savings are about 2% over a course of 10 years. “So $2 out of every $100 you spend on energy,” he said.
Concerns raised during the three jurisdictions’ September joint workshop continued into the ensuing decision-making meetings in October.
Those concerns include geothermal zone participation, lack of sufficient representation of Lake County voices on the SCP board, lack of formal tribal participation and record of SCP supporting Assembly Bill 531 regarding geothermal development that allows the state to bypass local authority.
“It’s like a roulette bet,” said Supervisor Crandell at the Oct. 21 board meeting, likening the game to what SCP does by simultaneously supporting the legislative bill and promising Lake County strong local control.
“I don't mean that in a negative way. I'm saying that any business or entity would basically bet on the number 21 and then put red just in case they hit both — either or,” Crandell added. “That's just what happens; that's just the way life is.”
Crandell also frowned upon the uncertainties of how the tribes would fit in the governance structure of SCP.
The current 11 seats on the SCP board does not include any tribal representatives.
SCP Chief Executive Officer Geof Syphers explained at the joint workshop that it was because the state law forming the CCA program did not consider tribes and decisions were made based on votes of the counties and cities involved.
As Lake County continues to fight against decommissioning the Potter Valley Project, concerns were raised about Sonoma County Water Agency being one of the two “parties” in the joint party agreement along with County of Sonoma. In the meantime, Lake County is listed as a “participant” among other cities in the program.
The water agency is a key player of “Two-basin Solution Partnership” which local leaders believe seeks to exclude Lake County’s interests from the beginning for the Potter Valley situation.
“I have issues with Sonoma Water,” Supervisor Sabatier said at the meeting, pointing toward the conflicting interests. “I feel uncomfortable in building that relationship right now. It's bad timing.”
“I think there's been times we've worked okay with them, but most of the time it's been we haven't really had a voice,” Crandell later said.
Supervisor Owen said she wanted more research, more options on the table and did not want to be locked into a 20-year commitment.
“I don't want to hinder what else might be on the horizon,” Owen said.
Many of those who spoke against joining SCP’s geothermal zone during public comment cited that the SCP would be able to bypass local authorization and get approval from the state, as the new law permits.
Whereas Supervisor Rasmussen said joining SCP now would give Lake County an advantage instead, in the face of the new legislation.
“Geothermal is going to happen here, no matter what it is,” Rasmussen said.
“Somebody is going to propose projects, try to put projects in and with the current state law — there's projects that the state can approve that we have no say in,” he said. “So if we have a partnership with somebody such as Sonoma Clean Power, who has the expertise for this kind of development, I think that puts us in a better position to drive what geothermal projects we would want in our community.”
Supervisor Pyska emphasized the importance and urgency of developing an option outside of Pacific Gas and Electric, with the cost of life in all aspects on the rise, including energy.
“So we look at all these compounding costs for our residents — it is crushing, and it will continue to crush,” she said. “And so if we were to join this, maybe the first year or two, it's not a significant saving. Maybe it is, if we are able to produce more energy here, and that is what this geo zone opportunity is.”
A decade of search meets another delay
In the span of a decade, Lake County has requested three times to join the SCP. In 2015, the SCP said it was not ready for expansion. In 2019, the SCP conducted a feasibility study that showed unfavorable market conditions, concluding that it was not able to offer a competitive rate.
Finally this year, the updated feasibility study SCP conducted in May showed market and regulatory conditions had improved and rates might go down.
“This has been a long time coming,” said former Supervisor Denise Rushing during public comment.
Rushing was among the few who showed up in strong support of closing the deal at the board meeting. “It's a quiet decision with enormous opportunity for us. It could shape our energy future.”
“This is a conversation that predates all of us on this board,” Pyska said. “ It does seem new, and it could seem rushed, but it's not.”
Pyska added, “We could kick it down the road and say, maybe we'll get a better deal — but maybe we won't. This is the deal that we've been working on for a really long time. I think we just need to make this decision and move forward.”
However, the deal with SCP wasn’t closed. The supervisors decided not to vote so that conversations could stay open and explorations with other agencies may go on.
Syphers of SCP, who had engaged in trips and presentations in Lake County over the past months, expressed frustration.
“I don't want to sugarcoat it. It does matter to get some closure on it. And I don't want to be spending another year going through and having multiple staff coming over the hill and going over the hill while you're exploring things with other organizations and things like that,” he said.
At the Lakeport City Council meeting, Syphers said SCP had spent about $90,000 in two feasibility studies they conducted and made 15 to 20 trips to Lake County this year.
If Lake County did decide to join SCP in October, service would not begin until May 2027.
So now what does the timeline may look like for Lake County residents to have alternative power options?
“Well, let’s hope that within the year that we get good information back and good opportunities and see if we have an alternative that we want to go with,” Sabatier told Lake County News.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Clearlake City Council vote was 3-0. It was in fact 3-2.
Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at
